Manasquan, 04/25/13 --- Head cheese paired with orchids with a rose petal vinaigrette at Manasquan River Golf Club. Robert Ward / Staff Photographer

Written by

Nina Rizzo
| @NinaRizzo1

Chef Dan Palsi learned to appreciate the beauty, flavor and nutritional value of edible flowers as a boy. Each spring he would help his grandfather, who also was a chef, pick dandelions from fields in the Meadowlands and bring home a box full of those broad-leaf weeds with bright yellow flowers and stew the leaves with cannellini beans. The dish was topped with shaved Romano cheese and red pepper flakes, and served with crusty Italian bread.

"I still have the banana knife we used to cut the flowers," he recalled.

Palsi, executive chef of Manasquan River County Club in Brielle, said his ...